Hidden True Crime - HIDDEN NEW YEARS UPDATES | New Delphi Orders, Lori Vallow Files Her Own Motions, & Sydney Powell Wins Appeal

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

Subscribe for additional episodes and seasons coming in 2025 What started as a simple conversation at their dinner table became a captivating podcast. Join the dynamic duo of Dr. John Matthias, a Princeton educated forensic psychologist, and Lauren Matthias, an award-winning investigative journalist, as they delve into the psychological facets of unthinkable crimes every week. Their unique perspectives and in-depth analysis offer a fresh take on true crime storytelling. Thank you for your support through sponsorships, subscribing, listening, and becoming a Patreon member at Patreon.com/HiddenTrueCrime Sources: News5Cleveland ABC10 WKYC Sacramento Bee 13WMAZ Audio Sources: CourtTV Our Sponsors:* Check out Acorns: https://acorns.com/HIDDENTRUECRIME* Check out Acorns: https://acorns.com/HIDDENTRUECRIME* Check out Armoire and use my code HIDDENTRUECRIME for a great deal: https://www.armoire.style* Check out Effecty and use my code HIDDENTRUECRIME for a great deal: https://www.effecty.com* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code HIDDENTRUECRIME for a great deal: https://happymammoth.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/hidden-a-true-crime-podcast1836/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This week, a couple new filings came down in the Delphi case. At the end of Richard Allen's sentencing on the 20th December, the prosecution motioned a seal of all crime scene and autopsy photos, as well as all of Richard Allen's medical and mental health. health records. The defense essentially said in court during this time, and I was there, remember, they said that they had no major objections to this, but they did request a week to go through case law, to check on things, to really make sure that they had zero objections. Well, on Monday, we saw an order signed by Judge Gull showing that the crime scene photos, autopsy photos, and reports,

as well as those medical and mental health records of Richard Allen, will all be seen. and not be released to the public. The second order that was signed by Judge Gull was just sort of acknowledging her receipt of the defense's request for the transcript of the safekeeping hearing. Now, the safekeeping hearing took place a couple days after Richard Allen's arrest in 2022.

That was October 22. And in her response, Judge Gull essentially said she was C-Cing, the appellate counsel, and the public defender for the request. The defense also filed a moment. to preserve all of the evidence in the case as well as all documents related to the jury veneyer. Also on Monday, Judge Cole signed an order denying that motion to preserve the evidence, citing the request being vague. However, she did grant the motion to preserve all of the documents

related to the jury veneer. And when it comes to appeal updates, also on Monday, the state public defender filed a motion for the court to allow her to appoint two appellate attorneys, instead of just one so they could adequately and timely review the voluminous record, multiple pretrial hearings, trial proceedings, and evidence presented in Richard Allen's case. We are still waiting on an answer for that, although I would say it is likely to be granted. Now, aside from the legal side of things in the Delphi case, many people have wondered about the reward money in that Delphi case and whether or not that would go to Kathy Sheesh. Now, Kathy was the one who found the misplaced file or the misplaced tip, which ultimately

led to the conviction, the arrest, followed by the conviction of Richard Allen. That reward money how is up to $325,000 by the time Richard Allen was officially arrested. Right, that's a lot of money. Since everyone's been wondering, well, Kathy's daughter has been vocal on X about her mom and the role she played in all of this, as well as the status of that reward money. She posted on Sentencing Day saying, quote, it's over. I can finally talk about it now. My mom caught the Delphi killer. She has lived in Carroll County for her entire life.

She came out of retirement as a child investigator of 40 plus years to volunteer unpaid and do anything she could to help. She was tasked with going through files and files of years worth of paperwork and found Richard Allen through due diligence and her unwavering resolve to help the children of Carroll County. She will never make any kind of public statement about it, but she lasted 40 years in a job where most people quit before 10 years. And even after she retired, she still felt called to help in some small way. She never gave up. She did what little she could.

She showed up every week for eight years. years to do whatever was needed from sweeping the floors to baking cookies for the FBI to putting tips into the database. She will never ask for a thank you, but I think she deserves it. End quote. She also posted screenshots of texts between her and Kathy during the trial. Kathy's daughter, who is an author and goes by the pen name Dahlia, said that she never knew her mom was the one who caught Richard Allen until after her official testimony in court. And I was, and I was a woman. And I was there for that testimony. It was powerful. And not only that, but Dahlia said that her mother never talked about any of her cases during all of the years that she was working in the child

field. Talk about altruistic. As for the reward money, well, Kathy isn't collecting any of it instead she wanted to be donated to the softball field that was made in honor of Abby and Libby, as well as scholarships in their memory. Earlier this week, I interviewed Lee D.E. investigator, Lieutenant Jerry Holman, which you can find on YouTube or our podcast, and more interviews are in the works. I suspect appeals will also be in the works, and we will continue to keep you updated on all things Delphi. Now, on to Lori Valo. If you were worried there was no news, there is always news when it comes to Lori Valo. It is the case that keeps on going. And these are the first official motions made by the doomsday mom who is pro per.

First a motion to order Maricopa County Sheriff's Office records regarding her communications between multiple agencies. But get this, this was an interesting part of the motions. She does still sign them, Lori DeBell. And she has dubbed her one-man-banned legal team, the DeBell Defense Team. Valo makes it clear in her motions that she wants to deny anyone access to her medical records, and that includes her mental health records under Rule 501. And she is motioning to obtain records regarding her extradition to Arizona. Plus, she's wanting emails. Oh, a lot of emails, FBI emails, the state of Idaho, Arizona, Maricopa County,

attorney Rachel Mitchell, and the late county attorney, Alistair Adol, between the years of 2019 until 2024. And now, let's talk Sydney Powell. Last week, Sydney Powell was granted in appeal. So HTC has not covered the Sydney Powell case yet. However, we have been following it, and we do plan to cover it in the near future, especially given the mental health aspects of this case and now this news of her appeal. But for a quick catch-up on the case, Sydney, who is now 24 years old, was convicted in

23 of murdering her mom in Ohio in March of 2020. Sydney had been suspended from school due to her grades, but she had been making every effort possible to not tell her parents and make it seem like she was still enrolled. She even showed up to classes she wasn't enrolled in and had been sleeping in hotels and only paying cash the week prior to her mom's murder just so her parents would not find out that she had been evicted from her dorm room. So this all came to a head when Sydney's dad could not access the portal to pay her tuition. It was then that he found out Sydney actually had been suspended and wasn't in school like both of her parents thought. Well, later that day, Sydney's mom, Brenda, she's on the phone with the

college when she was hit with a skillet and stabbed nearly 30 times in the neck. After hearing screaming and thuds on the line, the call was cut off, but the school, they called back three times before Sydney finally answered, acting like her mom. And when they called her out on it, because she didn't sound like her mother, she hung up the phone, which was when they then alerted police. Sydney was eventually convicted, and she was sentenced to 15 years. to life after a three-week trial when her team argued she suffered from schizophrenia and was having a mental health crisis. However, last week was when her team won the appeal and her conviction was actually overturned. Well, what's the basis of the appeal when? Sydney's team was denied

their right to present a rebuttal to the state's psychologist who claimed that Sydney was not insane. So the state's psychologist's conclusion was not schizophrenia, but rather the state psychologist's conclusion was that Sydney suffered from borderline personality traits, malingering, and an unspecified anxiety disorder. But because the court denied the right for a rebuttal, there had just been so many expert testimony, the conviction has been overturned. After the appeal decision came through, Sydney's attorney gave an interview going more in depth about this decision. Take a listen. Don, thank you so much for being with us this morning. Congrats on this win for your client in terms of the appeal.

Talk to us about what happened. What tipped the scales for her in the appellate system? Yes, good morning, Julia. Thanks for having me. I don't think this was really a close call. As you laid it out, the defense has the opportunity to rebut the state's star witness. The state had one expert that they brought in

to testify that disagreed with our three experts, and we did not have an opportunity to rebut her testimony, her methodology, the way that she conducted her test. You know, we had three experts with a combined 50 years experience who sat with Sydney for over 30 hours and performed over 25 diagnostic tests to determine that she was seriously mentally ill.

The state's experts sat with Sydney for two hours and did no testing at all, none, zero. And we were not allowed to rebut that. We would have had our experts come up and say it is wholly improper to make a diagnosis without doing these objective tests that are relied on in the field of psychology. So I think the Court of Appeals got it right

and I think it really does tip the scales if the jury had the full information of how untrustworthy the state's expert was. So what happens now? When you hear overturned conviction, you think, oh, the person gets released from jail and they are a free person. They have nothing on their record,

but it's not. not quite what happens. This is the appellate court sending it back to the lower court, right? That's exactly right, Julia. And there's one other step here. You know, the prosecutor's office could decide to try to get into the Ohio Supreme Court. They have 45 days from the decision yesterday to try to do that. The Ohio Supreme Court takes a very low percentage of cases. This doesn't feel like a case that they would want to take because it is a very narrow issue. What happens next is assuming the prosecutor's office does not try to appeal this, it does go back to the trial court, and we would be getting a new trial date. In the meantime, however, in Summit County here in Ohio, we do have a newly elected prosecutor, and I look forward to reaching out to him and talking to him. I was very concerned at the first trial. The victim's rights were ignored and really trampled upon. the victim's rights, Brenda's husband, Brenda's mother, they did not want to see this case go to trial.

And they were ignored and their rights were violated. So my hope and my expectation is this new prosecutor is going to take a fresh look at this case, listen to the victims, and hopefully we can work out some type of a resolution. But right now, Sidney is in prison. She will stay there and listen until the jury or the judge does something different. And you mentioned the victims, the people who love not only, the victim who was killed but loved Sydney as well. I want to take a look back at Sydney's father Stephen Powell testifying during the trial.

Sir up until March 3rd of 2020 had Sydney ever seen a psychologist or a counselor? No. Okay. And up until that point you or Brenda never had any concerns about her mental health? No. Is there anything, Don, you can tell us about their reaction, the family, but also... Most people don't realize how much their personal information is being bought and sold every day. Data brokers are making billions, pulling details about you from public records and the internet, and then packaging and selling it, usually without your consent. That's how your information lands in the hands of scammers, spammers, even stalkers.

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That trial was really torture for Sidney's family, for her grandmother and for Stephen Powell. They do not want to go through another trial. So they are hopeful that the prosecutor will listen to them and we can work something out. We have been in contact with Sydney. She was very happy, but very reserved. She has been betrayed by the criminal justice system before. And she knows how difficult it is to get a jury or a judge to see through a really difficult. difficult crime scene and understand mental health is real.

So I'm hopeful that we're going to be able to get Sydney back here in Summit County. I can see her soon here in Summit County. We'll get a new trial date and we will work very hard to try to get her out and get her the help that she desperately, desperately needs. What's one financial lesson you learned the hard way? I'll go first. It's not too late to start saving. Today's episode is sponsored by Acorns. Acorns is a financial wellness app that makes it easy to start saving and invest.

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in the near future. And in Sacramento, a 28-year-old has been charged with beheading his one-year-old. old son after a domestic dispute. This is a difficult case, I know. Just before Christmas, on Friday, December 20th, at 4.15 a.m., police were called to a home over a domestic disturbance. And when they got there, a woman said that her husband had assaulted both her and her mother. Well, the woman's mom was taken to the hospital, while police worked on talking to the woman's husband, Andre. Well, Andre refused to talk to them or come out of the house. and after learning that a one-year-old boy named Micah was inside the house still

and had maybe been thrown by his father, officers decided to then forcefully enter the house for the little baby safety. But by the time they got inside, it was too late, and officers walked into a scene that visibly shook them. While placing Andre under arrest in a bedroom, they found Micah's head on the floor. The investigation revealed that after the little boy's mom and grandma walked outside, of the house during that dispute, well, that's when Andre used a knife and beheaded his son. He was immediately taken into custody and has been charged with murder, assault using force likely

to cause great bodily injury, causing injury to a spouse or cohabitant, and assault resulting in the death of a child under eight years of age. He appeared in court last week, wearing a blue outfit, which in that county means that he is being held in the psychiatric side of the jail. During the hearing, He could be seen smiling the whole time. His public defender said that it was obvious that Andre has, quote, clear mental health issues, end quote, and is requesting a full mental health evaluation. His next court date is set for March 13th.

In the meantime, a go-fund me has quickly raised over $100,000 for little Micah's mom, who was not only grieving the tragic loss of her son, but is also expecting another baby. In Monroe, Georgia, six men have been charged with what police call an incident that is, quote, like something out of the Sopranos TV series. This all started on December 19th when a homeowner who was getting his driveway paved called police to report a large fight that included bats and guns. So when police get to the scene, they learned that EH paving was the company paving the driveway. While they were paving, three trucks pulled up, stopped in the road, and then started arguing with the workers, and they had bats, sticks, and other weapons. Things quickly escalated, and the workers from E.H. Paving tried to back up on the driveway, but they eventually ran out of space and couldn't escape the six men, and things took a very violent turn with the six men beating the workers from E.H. paving, and one even pointing a long,

cowboy-style pistol and one of the worker's faces. One of the EH-paving workers even fired a gun into the air in the woods in an effort to get them to stop. Well, luckily, despite the E.H workers having bumps and bruises and one going to the hospital after being lightheaded and throwing up, no one was severely injured. But who are these six men and what is their motive? Well, the six men are all from one family, called the Bucklands. and they own other paving companies throughout Georgia.

This rivalry apparently is not new, and the Bucklands have shown up to other EH paving jobs before to start fights. This specific fight seemed to potentially stem from the fact that this job was near one of the Buckland family members' houses, which may have been perceived as disrespectful. After investigating all six members of the Buckland family were arrested and charged with various things,

Mark Sr. was charged with criminal trespass, pointing a pistol at another person and tampering with evidence. Mark Jr. was the one who seemingly started the entire fight, and despite claiming he was punched in the mouth and saying it was just a misunderstanding, he was charged with criminal trespass, simple battery, and inciting a riot. Willie Sr. was charged with criminal trespass and aggravated assault after he apparently used a bat to hit one of the other men in the head. Luke apparently also used a bat on one of the other men as well, and he was charged with simple battery and trespass. Willie Jr. and James Small were both charged with simple battery and trespass after they jumped on one of the guys and used their fists and a bat to attack him.

This happened on a Thursday and by Monday, get this, all members of the Buckland family have already bailed out of jail and are awaiting their next court dates. Once again, if you value these weekly hidden update, please let us know in the comments or by subscribing to our podcast. This is Lauren signing off, but reminding you before I do, make sure to subscribe for all things, hidden true crime. Most people don't realize how much their personal information is being bought and sold every day. Data brokers are making billions, pulling details about you from public records and the internet,

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